Collaborative Research: Lithospheric Structure and Evolution of the Rocky Mountains - beginning Phase 2 Geodynamic Processes

海兹勒美国西部是世界上研究大陆演化的最佳地点之一，因为那里保存着大陆的生长、稳定、成熟、裂谷和早期解体的独特记录。特别是，我们可以看到较老的岩石圈结构(在这里是太古宙和元古界)如何影响年轻的构造事件，包括主导美国西部的巨大的、目前活跃的造山高原的发展，以及大陆碎片沿着其活跃的西部边缘的逐步解体和扩散。大陆是200 Ma以前板块相互作用的长期记录保持者。然而，累积的修改往往掩盖了以前的记录。美国西部的独特之处在于，这部分大陆在元古代围绕着太古宙的“克拉通核”组装，然后在显生宙被高角度截断，从而形成了与前寒武纪构造倾斜的新的大陆边缘。其结果是创造了一个广阔的地区--美国西部--在那里，自然“捕捉”了构造重新激活和大陆改造的所有阶段。CD-ROM(落基山脉大陆动力学)项目的主要目标是了解大陆岩石圈的形成和改造过程。光盘实验的第一阶段是一个为期三年的项目，目的是改进我们对岩石圈的结构和岩石学知识，并检验这一假设，即北美西南部组装期间产生的岩石圈结构在随后的所有岩浆和构造事件，包括与持续的软流圈流动有关的事件中，深刻影响了大陆岩石圈的物理和化学变化。主要研究人员用一系列地震和地质学方法研究了两个元古界构造：夏延带和杰梅兹线。反射、折射和远震调查正在提供主要构造的地壳和岩石圈尺度的图像。通过对前寒武纪剪切带和显生宙构造的地质研究、捕虏体研究以及对现今地貌的地貌和折返研究，增加了对岩石圈演化的更完整的图景。第一阶段汇集了来自14个机构的18名调查人员，其中包括与德国资助的屈光团队合作。有了这些奖励，将提供一年的资金来继续处理、解释和整合第一阶段产生的各种数据集，并开始开发地球动力学模型。首席调查员还将探索新的数据整合方法，以实现开发岩石圈结构“总模型”的目标。

0003536HeizlerThe western U.S. is one of the best places in the world to study continental evolution because there is a preserved unique record of the growth, stabilization, maturation, rifting, and incipient dismemberment of a continent. In particular, we can see how older lithospheric structures (in this case Archean and Proterozoic) influenced younger tectonic events, including development of the huge, presently active, orogenic plateau that dominates the western U.S. and the progressive dismemberment and dispersal of continental fragments along its active western margin. Continents are the long-term record keepers of plate interactions before 200 Ma. However, accumulated modification often obscures the previous record. The western U.S. is unique in that this part of the continent was assembled in the Proterozoic around an Archean "cratonic core", then was truncated in the Phanerozoic at a high angle so as to create a new continental margin oblique to the Precambrian structures. The result was the creation of a wide region - the western U.S. - where nature "caught" all stages of structural reactivation and continental modification.The main goal of the CD-ROM (Continental Dynamics of the Rocky Mountains) Project is to understand the processes of formation and modification of continental lithosphere. Phase 1 of the CD-ROM experiment was a three year project to improve our structural and petrologic knowledge of the lithosphere and to test the hypothesis that the lithospheric structure produced during assembly of southwestern North America has profoundly influenced physical and chemical modification of the continental lithosphere during all subsequent magmatic and tectonic events, including those related to the ongoing asthenospheric flow. The principal investigators studied two Proterozoic structures with a range of seismic and geologic methods: the Cheyenne Belt and the Jemez lineament. Reflection, refraction, and teleseismic investigations are providing crustal - and lithospheric - scale images of major structures. A more complete picture of the evolution of the lithosphere has been added by geologic studies of Precambrian shear zones and Phanerozoic structures, xenolith studies, and geomorphologic and exhumation studies of present landforms. Phase 1 brought together 18 investigators from 14 institutions, including collaboration with a German-funded refraction team. With these awards, one year of funding is provided to continue to process, interpret, and integrate the diverse data sets generated in Phase 1 and to begin developing geodynamic models. The Principal Investigators will also explore new methods of data integration towards the goal of developing a "master model" for lithospheric structure.***